Agile for Humans with Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller

Jowen Mei's Journey to Scrum Mastery | Expert Insights & Tips

May 9, 2024

Experienced Scrum Master Jowen Mei shares his journey from developer to Scrum Master, emphasizing autonomy, team collaboration, and purpose. He discusses his evolution from a directive to a coaching style, highlighting the importance of team ownership. Mei offers advice for aspiring Scrum Masters, focusing on curiosity, humility, and continuous improvement. He recommends a book on the responsibility process for deeper insights into team dynamics and leadership.

13:45

Episode guests

Jowen Mei

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Scrum mastery involves evolving from directive practices to coaching and empowerment for sustainable team improvement.

Continuous improvement mindset, curiosity, and humility are essential for aspiring scrum masters to understand team dynamics and lead effectively.

Deep dives

Benefits of Evidence-Based Leadership

Utilizing evidence-based management principles in leadership helps modern managers tackle complex challenges efficiently. By incorporating data and information, leaders can ensure they are making informed decisions that align with customer needs and organizational capabilities. This approach fosters a culture of validation and empowers leaders to consistently improve decision-making based on collected data.

Introduction

2min

Pivotal Journey from Developer to Scrum Master

3min

Evolution of a Scrum Master

4min

Essential Advice for Aspiring Scrum Masters

2min

Exploring a Psychological Insightful Book Recommendation for Scrum Masters

3min

Jowen Mei's scrum journey began in 2010 as a C# developer in Microsoft technology. His first experience with Scrum was transformative, sparking his love for the framework due to its focus on autonomy, mastery, and purpose, such as team collaboration, TDD, and direct customer engagement.

After his initial scrum experience, Mei launched his own agile-focused startup, which faced initial challenges. He returned to consultancy, gradually shifting from development to scrum mastering, influenced by the role's complexity and its impact on professional and personal life.

Mei's early scrum master approach focused on strict adherence to practices and persuasion, but he evolved to emphasize coaching, inspiration, and empowering team ownership for sustainable improvement.

For aspiring scrum masters, Mei emphasizes the importance of curiosity, humility, and an experimental mindset. He believes in understanding underlying reasons for team behaviors and adopting a continuous improvement mindset.

Mei recommends Christopher Avery's book The Responsibility Process for scrum masters. He values its insights into the psychological aspects of ownership and responsibility and shares his appreciation for the book's impact on his understanding of team dynamics and leadership.

🔗 Join Ryan & Todd's Scrum.org course: https://buytickets.at/agileforhumansllc

Explore more:

📖 "Unlocking Business Agility with Evidence-Based Management: Satisfy Customers and Improve Organizational Effectiveness" on Amazon -- https://amzn.to/4690qJy

📖 "Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems" on Amazon -- https://amzn.to/46dAQTC

✅ Subscribe to this channel for Agile, Scrum, and Kanban insights: https://www.youtube.com/agileforhumans?sub_confirmation=1

🌐 Connect with Agile for Humans:
📘 Website - https://agileforhumans.com/
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/agileforhumans
🔗 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/agile-for-humans-llc
🔍 The Evidence-Based Company - https://theevidencebasedcompany.com/
📧 Email - ryan@agileforhumans.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more